Cimarosa, DOMENICO, an Italian composer of operas, was born either at Aversa, 17th December 1749, or more probably at Naples in 1755. He was certainly educated at Naples, in music under Sacchini, and in the conservatory of Loreto. His first pieces were the Sacrificio di Abramo and the Olympiade. When barely twenty-two he had achieved a reputation in all the leading Italian theatres. He was then called to St Petersburg as composer to the Empress Catharine II., where he resided four years. Afterwards he lived at various
German courts; thence he proceeded to Vienna, where he became imperial kapellmeister; and finally he returned to Italy. At Naples, his comic opera, Il Matrimonio Segreto, composed at Vienna, 1791, was repeated seventy times in succession. Cimarosa died at Venice, 11th January 1801. His comic operas are remarkable for their novelty, spirit, whimsicality, and liveliness of idea, as well as for their great knowledge of stage-effect.